New Riders of the Purple Sage stay true to legacy of the '70s

Genealogists sometimes use the term "woodpile relations" to describe the tangled connections among family members. Among the small and tightly knit community of musicians, the term is quite appropriate, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage are a perfect example.

Genealogists sometimes use the term "woodpile relations" to describe the tangled connections among family members. Among the small and tightly knit community of musicians, the term is quite appropriate, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage are a perfect example.

In the summer of 1969, John Dawson was looking to showcase his songs while Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead wanted to practice his brand new pedal steel guitar. Guitarist David Nelson joined the group on electric lead guitar, and they played in coffeehouses and small clubs around the West Coast.

When the suddenly popular Dead's schedule made it impossible for Garcia to play with his second band, Buddy Cage filled in on pedal steel.

The band spent much of its early years touring with the Dead, and by the mid-1970s had become an iconic fixture in the world of psychedelic rock with hits such as Peter Rowan's "Panama Red."

The current incantation of the Riders features Nelson, Cage, Ronnie Penque on bass, Johnny Markowski on drums and Mike Falzarano on guitar.

"We try to stay true to the legacy. It was Jerry Garcia who said that this band was going to be the big success because we had the small catchy tunes. Now we do some tunes that are three minutes long and others that are eight minutes. We have about a hundred tunes in our repertoire, and we are striking the balance between old and new," Falzarano said.

Falzarano, who played with Hot Tuna until he jumped ship to join the Riders, said he is still close to members of Hot Tuna and shares a New York connection with that band, as both groups prefer to record in Woodstock,N.Y., where the Riders are finishing up a new CD that features songs written by Robert Hunter, another link to the Dead .

"We're putting out a new album called '17 Pine Avenue,' " Falzarano said.

When asked what the significance of the title was, he laughed and said "That right there. It's working. The title is one of the tunes. (Hunter) wrote seven or eight tunes for the first (self-titled) album and more for this one. With Hunter, you never know where he gets it, but I think every town has a Pine Avenue. The CD's in the can; it's almost ready. I want to get a couple touch-ups on the mix and fix a couple vocal things."

Falzarano, who now lives in New York City, guessed the release will be sometime in the next few months, but in the meantime, touring has kept the band as busy as they want to be.

"We've been playing every year since 2005, a hundred shows a year, all over the country and Canada. Hopefully soon we'll do a European tour. Over the last five years, almost every year we've played (with Peter Rowan)," Falzarano said. "We play Pennsylvania a lot; it's our second biggest state, second only to New York state. We only play NYC once a year, but we spend a lot of time up near Buffalo, Woodstock and Kingston. We just want to put on a classic show at the Sherman."